As a young American looking at a "bleak" situation, what do you think I should do?

[Londo_Jowo]

If you have the ability to leave the country, leave as soon as you can and don't look back.

You should set an example and leave immediately. You hate America more than anyone I've ever met.

 

[CaptnKirk]

aero engineers is looked upon very highly, lots of aero engineers in australia never do any aero based engineering but never have a problem finding a job.

In the Aerospace Industry, there has been a major contraction of the companies involved.
In the late 60's there were over 30 companies, but the consolidation of the industry and resulting mega-mergerers
have reduced the field to basically 3 functional companies - Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and Northrop-Grumman.

That said, the resulting workforce today is only about 10% of that which was working through the 70's into the 80's.

Northrop has a very good engineering school specializing in the Aeronautical branch in Los Angeles, California
http://northropula.org/
and Embry-Riddle also has a excellent school in Daytona Beach, Florida.
http://www.erau.edu/ There may be more,
but these two are considered best from inside the functional industry.

Any good Mechanical Engineering or Software Engineering degree should be sufficient to get into an Aerospace company,
but you can get in quicker and advance better with the dedicated knowledge that comes from actual Aerospace Engineering.

My recent experience is that few of the degrees that come from outside of the Aerospace industry know
anything about what it takes to function with a knowledge base and what it takes to actually work.
Those engineers tend to be self serving 'know-it-alls' that don't listen to those who really know their stuff,
and we constantly have to fix their work, which is deficient by most measures.
It takes another 2 to 4 years for them to learn on the inside that knowledge that they should have had
when they first came in.
Too bad there is no apprenticeship required for getting an Aeronautical Degree, like there is in England.

There is going to be a severe shortage of competant engineers throughout the industry,
as we older geeks retire over the next few years.

 

[Zebo]

Might want to have a look at Cal Poly SLO. Times may have changed but when I graduated AE's were recruited about their junior year for summer internships and all had jobs by the time the graduated. Skunkworks, Boeing, lockheed etc.

Cal Poly is noted top 3 and is more practical than most universities with a senior project which is almost like a dissertation. Employers value this.

If engineering is your love just do it with right attitude and passion you'll always have a job. Analytical mind translates into many different fields such as business.

 

[werepossum]

I ask this question in all seriousness and with great humbleness to you all. I've been reading the forums here for a while and after going through a few particular topics, I decided to register.

This is undoubtedly a very difficult time for any American, no shades of gray in that picture, but I would like some opinions from you guys because frankly, I have some very critical decisions to make.

I'll being going to college in one year, I've been taking good classes, making strong grades, plan on attending a good university, you've heard it all before.

But, I'm not one hundred percent on what on want to do. I don't mean that in terms of career choice necessarily, I have clear and definite passions and I have what I know to be unwavering ambition. I'm not naive, though, I know I'm going to have to work my ass off and sell it if I want to succeed in a ferociously competitive and intellectual world, especially in the economic situation we're in right now.

Here's what I'm trying to choose between: Computer Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and/or Aeronautical Engineering. (I would like to take all of them as majors, but have been WARNED by teachers, friends, etc. are they right in saying that?)

So, now I get to my questions:
1. Would you say those are solid choices with great potential for (growth)/(societal contribution)/(success) in the future? if you have any suggestions, I am all ears, and open mind.

2. Should I try to get out of the country and study abroad/attend college/live in a more stable/progressive/environmentally friendly country? (Thinking places like Canada, England, Norway, Finland, Denmark, France)

3. Are "America collapsing" discussions truly valid? I personally find myself being put off of living in the US post college because of this. If not, what are (promising), (green friendly), (prospering), (growing) cities in the us I should look into?

4. Any other words of wisdom or advice?

Thanks to anyone who decides to read this, i hope you guys understand why I'm asking these questions. i value all of the feedback you guys can give.

Of the three disciplines you mention, I'd knock out aero unless it's your great love. There's just not that much work to be had, so you'll probably end up working outside the discipline anyway. Computer engineering is good right now, but is increasingly moving to Asia. Environmental engineering will be viable as long as our society can afford to protect the environment, but I'd combine it with something else, maybe civil or mechanical or electrical engineering, maybe mechatronics if your preferred university offers a good course. But if you have a good work ethic, have good grades, and are sharp enough to be at the top of your class and field, it really doesn't matter. The top of almost any field usually retains good jobs.

As to country, pick the country in which you most want to live. If the USA collapses - and that's entirely possible - it will certainly take down Canada and the UK, and probably France and Denmark as well. Only Norway and Finland are possibly independent enough to withstand such a crash. But no matter where you are, if you stay out of debt, build an emergency fund (ultimately six months' living expenses minimum), and live within your means, you can survive most collapses. The absolute safest thing in the event of a total collapse, owning an isolated farm and growing your own food, is great if that's what you want to do. However with the career choices you list, owning such a farm would require you to rent another home in the city to work. Again, that's great if you can afford it and it's what you want, but it's a lousy insurance policy in terms of cost versus benefit for anything less than a doomsday scenario.

 

[jonks]

If the USA collapses - and that's entirely possible - it will certainly take down Canada and the UK, and probably France and Denmark as well

Yes, it's possible, in the sense that anything is possible. I like to deal in probabilities more than possibilities, and the odds are pretty low, so I wouldn't factor that into any future decisions you have to make. Unless you are also factoring in best countries to survive planetary asteroid collisions.

 

[Zebo]

Yes, it's possible, in the sense that anything is possible. I like to deal in probabilities more than possibilities, and the odds are pretty low, so I wouldn't factor that into any future decisions you have to make. Unless you are also factoring in best countries to survive planetary asteroid collisions.

So the government can just keep taking loans and FED just printing up money for debt we can't even service today?

Uh huh. Then why ever work? Just gin it up in perpetuity.

No what's happening is we are approaching a crossroad ... we can choose; take the medicine or Wiemar.


The medicine is bad, really bad made more bad by Mr. Benny "wrong about everything" Bernanke and will crush our GDP but insolvency will erase it.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

What does this have to do with P&N? Also, I've never heard of an American saying "making strong grades."

agreed.
clearly, the OP is an immigrant that hates america.

 

[soundforbjt]

What should you do?

Marry an older rich woman with no family and no pre-nup.

 

[Jadow]

In this day and age, I would go to a community college to get the general ed classes taken care of, then after a year or two, transfer to a good, low cost public university. Do NOT sink 10's of thousands of dollars into college.

Work while you're in school to help cover the costs, and just keep your nose to the grindstone and you'll be fine. Also don't waste money on stupid shit like an iphone.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You should set an example and leave immediately. You hate America more than anyone I've ever met.

Hey, I meant to congratulate you on your addition to Dave's ignore list. I made it on there a long time ago because he couldn't stand the truth.

Anyway, OP, I have to agree with Doppel's advice. Engineering is a sound choice and if you can get some business background courses with it, that's even better.

 

[jonks]

So the government can just keep taking loans and FED just printing up money for debt we can't even service today?

Uh huh. Then why ever work? Just gin it up in perpetuity.

No what's happening is we are approaching a crossroad ... we can choose; take the medicine or Wiemar.

The medicine is bad, really bad made more bad by Mr. Benny "wrong about everything" Bernanke and will crush our GDP but insolvency will erase it.

There's a tad difference btw facing economic trials and total govt collapse. Doomsayers have been predicting collapse since the govt was founded, it sells parchment. I think we were closer in the 1860s and 1930s. As I said, probabilities, not possibilities.

 

[werepossum]

Yes, it's possible, in the sense that anything is possible. I like to deal in probabilities more than possibilities, and the odds are pretty low, so I wouldn't factor that into any future decisions you have to make. Unless you are also factoring in best countries to survive planetary asteroid collisions.

I'd say the odds of the USA collapsing are a hell of a lot greater than a catastrophic asteroid strike, but I'm speaking of a Great Depression event, not all-out Mad Max. The federal government is currently borrowing roughly half of what it is spending, and roughly half of all households receive a significant portion of their income from the federal government. This situation is not sustainable, and I don't see any way either party is going to take the political hit to fix it before a collapse.

It is perfectly possible to ride out a Great Depression event though, as long as you are solvent going in. My maternal grandfather went from a young sharecropper/laborer to owning a small farm during the Great Depression simply by dint of very hard work, very long hours, and a willingness to work at anything available that paid hard cash or something that could be traded. My great grandmother on my father's side went into the Great Depression as a widow with two houses inherited from aunts, neither of which was desirable and both of which together wouldn't equal 1,500 square feet. By letting rooms in her houses and buying nothing not absolutely essential, she managed to own four or five little houses by the time World War II ended the Great Depression. Even though both would be desperately poor by modern standards - my grandfather's house had three rooms, my great grandmother's houses three and four, neither had indoor plumbing, and my grandfather's didn't even have electricity - both prospered, albeit modestly, at a time when much of America (and indeed the world) was displaced and looking merely to survive. Hell, my grandfather's mother survived the Great Depression washing other people's clothes. Even at it's worst, three quarters of the country's workers were employed.

Things of course are different today. Property taxes are much higher for one thing, meaning a person needs to be able to generate or to have banked a lot more cash. But for a Great Depression event, the key will still be personal solvency. Very little money is actually required to live in much of the USA even today, if you own your own home or land. There's always the chance of a Max Max-type collapse where the individual needs to produce his family's food and defend it, but personally I think the odds of that are no greater than those of a catastrophic asteroid strike. And in any case, defending food supplies or other valuables would be beyond the abilities of individual families in that scenario; entire communities would band together to protect or seize resources.

Might as well work on your zombie plan as worry about that.

 

[Zebo]

What should you do?

Marry an older rich woman with no family and no pre-nup.

The old fashioned way and maybe the new way.

 

[theeedude]

1. Computer Engineering - it's a difficult major in a highly competitive field, so it will make you a smarter, more competitive person. You are going to learn math, logic, physics, programming, and how to compete in a dog eat dog field where every 18 months things get TWICE as good. That is going to help you regardless of what line of work you pursue later. Companies in many different fields love the "quantitative" way of thinking that computer engineers have.
Environmental and aeronautical engineering fields are both highly dependent on government work and contracts.
2. The US has the best, and most respected, higher education in the world, especially for computer engineering. Silicon valley is in the US for a reason. Whether you decide to live in another country after college, I would stick with a US education.
3. US is not "collapsing" it's just not growing as fast as China and India. That is a good thing, IMO. Prospering middle class in those countries is a good thing for America, both in terms of exports, but also, more prosperous middle class is going to drive up salaries, lessening wage competition for US labor.
4. Don't worry.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Hey, I meant to congratulate you on your addition to Dave's ignore list. I made it on there a long time ago because he couldn't stand the truth.

Thanks

I figured that most of his ignore list was made up of people who called him out on his compulsive lying and posting of utter bullshit.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Times may have changed but when I graduated AE's were recruited about their junior year for summer internships and all had jobs by the time the graduated. Skunkworks, Boeing, lockheed etc.

Sadly, times have changed, and the consolidation and mergers of the companies, and their just plain
becoming cheapskates in the present economy - with no financial incentatives from the Feds,
the Summer Internships have been curtailed to where they are but a fraction of what they were
even as recently as 2007. Cuts each year to where there have been virtualy nothing the last two.
There isn't even any guarantee anymore that if you did two consecutive internships at a company
that they would make a job offer, upon graduation, to the best performers.

Suicidal corprate policy, the MPA's with no technical knowledge are making decision to make profit, but not product.
Boeing is almost 3 years behind on the 787 due to piss poor management decisions without technical merit.

 

[Herr Kutz]

OP, where do you hang out? California or mosques?

 

[Circlenaut]

What ever you do, for the love of god go to a state school. Trust me you'll regret not going to one.

 

[Baasha]

If you're good with numbers and analytical thinking, you should be fine. Learn some humility and gain some perspective by traveling around the world and meeting new people.

If you want a 'safe' major, take Math. If you're dumb, just take biology and then go to medical school. What do they call the person with the lowest GPA in medical school? DOCTOR!